The Eastern Illinois Panthers and Jacksonville State Gamecocks meet Thursday in college basketball action at the Pete Mathews Coliseum.

The Eastern Illinois Panthers look to stay hot after winning six of their last seven games. The Eastern Illinois Panthers are averaging 73.7 points on 42.9 percent shooting and allowing 76.5 points on 45.7 percent shooting. Josiah Wallace is averaging 15 points and 2.8 assists while Mack Smith is averaging 11.6 points and 4.3 rebounds. Ben Harvey is the third double-digit scorer and Shareef Smith is grabbing 3.3 rebounds. The Eastern Illinois Panthers are shooting 37.1 percent from beyond the arc and 71 percent from the free throw line. The Panthers are allowing 37.2 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 35.4 rebounds per game. The Eastern Illinois Panthers have lost four of their last six road games.

The Jacksonville State Gamecocks also look for another win after winning 10 of their last 12 games. The Jacksonville State Gamecocks are averaging 76 points on 44.4 percent shooting and allowing 67.2 points on 40.3 percent shooting. Jason Burnell is averaging 14.1 points and 3.6 assists while Marlon Hunter is averaging 12.3 points and 4.2 rebounds. Detrick Mostella is the third double-digit scorer and Ty Hudson is grabbing 2.5 rebounds. The Jacksonville State Gamecocks are shooting 31.6 percent from beyond the arc and 73.3 percent from the free throw line. The Jacksonville State Gamecocks are allowing 33.6 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 38.5 rebounds per game. The Jacksonville State Gamecocks have won their three home games this season.

The Panthers are 2-5 ATS in their last 7 Thursday games. The Gamecocks are 5-1 ATS in their last 6 Thursday games, 4-1 ATS in their last 5 home games and 8-1-1 ATS in their last 10 games overall. The Panthers are 6-2 ATS in the last 8 meetings in Jacksonville St. The over is 24-6 in Panthers last 30 overall. The under is 6-2 in Gamecocks last 8 overall.

The Eastern Illinois Panthers have not played well on the road at all, while the Jacksonville State Gamecocks have proven themselves on the road all season and are outscoring teams by 14 points in the few home games they've had up to this point. With that said, Eastern Illinois has found ways to win games despite subpar play and is 5-3-1 ATS this season in non-home games. Jacksonville State has also had some offensive issues recently, which includes just 39.9 percent shooting in its last five games. I'm going to take my chances with the points.

Randy Chambers

1/9/2019, 7:00 PM (EST) 1/9/2019, 7:00 PM (EST)

Randy Chambers has been with Sports Chat Place since 2014 and covers everything from the NFL to WNBA and tennis. Nobody works harder in this business in terms of content produced and amount of sports covered. Formerly a lead college football writer with Bleacher Report and has had his work featured at Fox Sports, CBS Sports and various other outlets.

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